A cross-cultural comparison of Korean American and European American parental meta-emotion philosophy and its relationship to parent-child interaction

Research indicates that some parents have a meta-emotion philosophy that is high in awareness and coaching of emotion relative to others. Gottman et al. (1995) found that emotion-coaching parents have better marital relationships, show better parenting (i.e., they were less rejecting and more praising in the parent-child relationships), and have kids who show better psychological adjustment (i.e., their children showed greater ability to focus attention, fewer behavior problems, had less negative play with their best friends, less physical illness, and higher academic achievement). However, it is not clear whether these patterns are evident cross culturally. Unlike in the United States, Korean society traditionally has been under the influence of Confucianism. It demanded children's one-sided obedience to and respect for their parents in the parent-child relationship (Min, 1993). The goal of this study is to examine the differences between Korean American families and European American families with regards to parental meta-emotion philosophy and its application to parent-child interactions. Thirty-one European American families and 31 Korean American families with 8 to 9-year-old-children were recruited from the greater Seattle area. Parental meta-emotion philosophy, children's report of emotions, and parent-child teaching task interactions were examined. Results revealed that European American parents were more accepting and coaching of their children's emotions than Korean American parents. In the teaching task interactions, Korean American parents were more neutral overall in their affect compared to European American parents, and fathers in particular used more directives. European American parents showed more high level engagement with their children, and all three family members expressed more positive affect than in Korean American families. The children in these Korean American families expressed more tension, and also more often successfully completed the teaching task and completed it faster than European American children. Korean American children rated themselves as feeling less happy overall than European American children on the Reynolds Child Depression Scale. In conclusion, clear differences between European American and Korean American families were found. The curious combination of relatively low emotion coaching, child emotional distress and positive child performance in Korean American families and related implications are discussed.